red fig

The fish farmer is not allowed to catch the salmon he has raised.

A paradoxical situation has developed in the Khabarovsk Territory around the first and so far only non-state fish hatchery in the region. A resident of the city of Sovetskaya Gavan, Konstantin Kuzhel, built a farm for breeding Pacific salmon three years ago on the shore of Lake Tikhoe, leased from the state, very close to the shore of the Tatar Strait. In addition to the usual chum salmon, the reproduction of which is carried out by almost all fish farms, Mr. Kuzhel, as an experiment, decided to master the breeding of the rare chum salmon, listed in the regional Red Book. The eggs were taken from wild specimens with permission from Rosprirodnadzor. The equipment was purchased from the USA and Japan. The young sima were released three years ago. As Mr. Kuzhel himself notes, then practically no one believed that this experiment with capricious fish would be crowned with success. Contrary to the forecasts of ichthyologists, fish inspectors and even poachers, this year about five thousand artificially raised masu salmon returned to the lake from the sea to spawn.

This is a precedent for Russia, says farmer Kuzhel. So far, only fish farmers from the USA and Japan can boast of successful experience in breeding delicious cherry salmon. In Russia, the masu salmon is considered a threatened species. Very limited licensed fishing for this fish is allowed on the taiga rivers of Sakhalin and Primorye. In the Khabarovsk Territory, according to the director of the Pacific Research Center for the Fishing Industry, German Novomodny, since 1996, cherry salmon has been included in the regional Red Book and its economic use is prohibited by law.

And that is why fish farmers from the shores of the Tatar Strait find themselves in a very ambiguous position. “We are like shoemakers left without boots,” laments Polina Kuzhel, assistant director of the Lake Quiet farm. The same regulatory authorities that three years ago gave the go-ahead for an experiment with salmon salmon are now threatening entrepreneurs with large fines and criminal penalties if they start catching fish they have grown themselves. At the same time, in Primorye and Sakhalin, neighboring the Khabarovsk Territory, licensed salmon fishing is allowed.

According to Sergei Andrienko, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Khabarovsk Territory, Konstantin Kuzhel was officially allowed to catch only one hundred wild masu salmon. The regional Ministry of Natural Resources does not know where the herd of five thousand heads, which returns to spawn in Lake Tikhoye, came from. Moreover, the entire experiment, according to the head of the regional environmental protection department, Viktor Bardyuk, has no environmental value. The proposal to remove the so-called limited population of masu salmon, artificially grown on Lake Tikhoe, from the Red Book did not find support in the regional commission on rare and endangered species. As Mr. Bardyuk noted, this step will give rise to numerous abuses, because in practice it will be impossible to prove that the fish sold in a particular store comes from Lake Tikhoe, and not from the Amur or another river.

While farmers fight with officials, the fish continue to spawn. Since Lake Quiet has never been a natural breeding ground for this species, the masu salmon will not be able to spawn here. In fact, the farmer assures, in a month or two, the entire artificially raised herd of cherry salmon will die pointlessly. The only possibility is to collect the caviar artificially, but for this you must obtain permission. Any initiative on the part of the farmer will be punished. But if Mr. Kuzhel leaves everything as it is and the fish dies, according to Viktor Bardyuk, he will again face a large fine.

Ilya SERGEEV, Khabarovsk region